Earlier this year Nintendo announced that it would make the Wii Mini available this holiday season in the United States. The Wii Mini bundle was announced for $99 and included Mario Kart Wii. There’s numerous things wrong with that marketing decision, despite what anyone says about trying to move old Wii Mini stock. I was angry enough to write an editorial where I discussed why this was such a bad idea and many of you agreed with me.

Now it looks like my predictions are coming true. In the above image you’ll see a cardboard display clearly designed to be holding the Mario and Luigi Wii U bundle. Next to it is a Wii Party U display that clearly has Wii U bundles shown properly. This retailer has chosen to take the display for the Wii U, plaster a huge €99 sign in the middle, and toss all the unwanted Wii Minis in the hopes that someone will buy them. It’s clear from the euro symbol that this store isn’t in the United States, but the fact that the retailer is misusing the Wii U display to hold unwanted Wii Mini consoles is exactly what Nintendo doesn’t need.

This is why the Wii Mini should have never been featured during this holiday season. Did you see anything similar at a retailer during your shopping this year?

but at least the 2DS is still relevant, as 3DS games are still being made. The Wii mini is too little too late

Человек Оркестр

Why not? Good enough as a present to a child who is not aware of console gaming pleasure. Many games already available, still the same fun.

Mr. Berzerk

I still think the retailers are doing this on purpose to clear stock, and that the stock boys are MS/Sony fanboys.

SomeFluffer64

I haven’t forgotten about the rumor where Sony supposedly bribed retailers to make them act confused about the difference between Wii and Wii U.

Christopher 並天道虫

Stores really don’t care at all about this sort of crap. They are just average employees and they don’t get notes from higher up saying “mess with Nintendo displays lol”

Mr. Berzerk

That is why I think it is the employees themselves.

Christopher 並天道虫

Yeah, I used to work retail. They just don’t want empty shelves. It’s the worst possible thing in a business like retail. So they’ll fill it up immediately. Look on the positive side, that means they completely sold out of the previous product! 😉

Adam

First part is understandable but I’d more likely quit my job (or start moving in that direction) if we used a Skittles display for M&Ms.

sounds legit, the store it self doesn’t know the difference between wii and wii u or 360 and xbone… but the guys that is there and sells to you know the difference.

Laud

To be fair, they’re still selling PSP games and have a PS Vita on the preview stand.

These guys are obviously behind the times.

Zakariyya Al-Quran

The thing wrong at the Sam’s Club where I live is they have all video games in a tiny little aisle and there are all consoles but Wii U

AAAkabob

Is anyone else being automatically redirected to the App Store app and sent to download Candy Crush? This is beyond annoying and it happens every time I open a news article. Figure it out WiiUDailu or I’m out.

Sheiky Baby

Annoying as shit!

Aleks

Yup. Sure is happening to me- and im way over it.

Alanistic

Nope, all is working fine for me. Maybe some malware? Are you on a mobile device?

AAAkabob

iPhone running latest iOS, and it looks like I’m not alone.

Jack5221

Happens all the time to me when I visit the site on my iPhone. I hate mobile games and refuse to download Candy Crush. I swear, people who spend money on that game fail at life.

Pikachief

People spend money on that game? O.O

Jack5221

Lol, unfortunately yes.

Daniel Gonzalez

If it’s on mobile, then it isn’t worth it. Plus, it sounds boring to me.

I’ve reported the problem to one of our programmers and she’s taking a look into it. Could be a rogue ad that’s causing the problem as we’ve not approved anything like that on the site. Thanks for letting us know it’s happening so we can fix it promptly.

Well the Wii Mini shouldn’t have been sold during the holidays. Instead Nintendo should have given retailers extra Wii U. Alot of the places were I live from Wal-Mart to Best Buy were out of stock on Wii Us and still alot of the Wii minis were available. Obviously retailers are stupid by doing this but still hopefully this teaches Nintendo something. This year should be about the Wii U for the most part. The 3DS is printing money weekly so Nintendo shouldn’t worry about it too much. I mean even now I see more 3DS ads then Wii U ads. Hopefully this also teaches Nintendo not to ride one name to long. Gameboy was acceptable but with the Wii U the Wii name should stop after this console. I really don’t want to see a Wii U Me.

readypembroke

Same at my Walmart. No Wii U’s but 2-4 Wii Minis just setting there.

bizzy gie

Wii U Mii Us Them Hii Shii Everubodii

Elitepwnsface

I agree with their methods.

Coffee

To be fair at least the wii mini has quality console games like xenoblade,Mario galaxy and resident evil 4. Its a better purchase than the ouya in my opinion, I’m not sure but I think you can put emulators on the wii mini without internet, again I’m not sure because I dont know if there is an SD slot

Ace J

if you can even find a copy of xenoblade on a shelf lol

Flopperop

Apparently there’s not an SD card slot in the Wii Mini, so I’m pretty sure that that means that there’s no way to execute any homebrew whatsoever.

And all it does is hurt Nintendo. Nintendo reps should be on top of that shit

wiimenonowiiu

They should im in sales myself and i would be all over that i would of should retailers how to sell the mini and wii u its not that hard

Rinslowe

But by how much? Where is this store? What is the population density? Did we ourselves even care until the article was posted?
LOL
🙂
But yeah you have a point. Crack that whip Ninty…

gamesplayswill

*Loads shotgun* Okay, who’s in? We are gonna burst in there and fire at will.

Kuromad

The Wii Mini has been for sale in europe for a while. This also is sold without Mario Kart bundled. Before the Wii Mini was released you could get a normal Wii with Mario Kart for about 130 euro’s. Now they sell the inferior Wii Mini for 99 and expect you to pay another 40 for Mario Kart. This is what’s bad about the Wii Mini. I expect this is done because that previous Wii version was very easy to hack. They (used to) sell ‘guides’ that include the needed software for a few euro’s.

The store is not to blame in this example. They just ran out of mario Wii U bundles and used the excess space to sell something else. I suspect that they will reuse that cardboard stand again once they get new stock and a lot of stores don’t really care to store that stand somewhere else just until they can use it again.

Sheiky Baby

What an unfortunate sight… Regardless, it’s their own fault for naming it that. Wii 2 isn’t even that great, but it’s far more explanatory than a random U. I believe Nintendo gives too much credit to the public, and think everyone has a smart head on their shoulders. Nope!
I had to explain to three people what the Wii U was while they were at my house. 2 of them had skipped on it cuz they thought it was just a tablet for the Wii, and said..” Ah, well I don’t need it anymore cuz I bought the Xbox One. Playstation’s were sold out. I wish I knew what it was then”
They’re quick to change their minds after a Mario Kart trailer 🙂

Mr. Berzerk

Should have been Wii TU

Dimitri Theodosakis

If Wii U Named Wii 2 liking have Sold 9 Million for First Year but nope 5 Million

lonewolf

They don’t even care that’s all and you need to be really stupid not to see the difference between the wii wii mini and the wii u

Stop NOT blaming Nintendo for this stupid marketing move of Wii Mini. I hate it when big fans who follow gaming news closely call just anyone who doesn’t do such as necessarily “stupid.”

Nintendo were the ones who made a needless variation of a discontinued product, designed to milk the formerly-popular Wii name to already-confused non-gaming consumers, despite dealing with a struggling new console of a very similar name and look to the original Wii, which was a stupid idea from the start.

boynhisblobs

I had a Mario themed birthday party for my daughter last weekend and setup mario on the Wii U. None of the attendees had even heard of the Wii U! At least 10 times I had to state it was Nintendo’s new console, similar to PS4 or Xbox One, both of which everyone had heard of. “OH, so it’s nintendo’s answer to the PS4?”
This is a problem….

It’s still a different number, and Xbox didn’t have as many accessories

Adam

Unless this was at a public location you should’ve asked anyone like that to leave. ;b

(Not really, but yea…)

Cadrion

Anyone else happy too see the box isn’t full of wii u’s ? Yeah silly to have the wii in there, but I like that the store is inferably out of U’s 🙂

Daniel Gonzalez

It shows Wii U bundles to the right of it. Lol.

Guest

I thought they discontinued making the Wii. Why they released this during the holidays is beyond me. Plus Sony and Microsoft are STILL supporting the PS3 / 360 by releasing all of their next gen games on their old consoles. WHY!?! Whats the incentive to buy a PS4 / One if they have all the same games as their predecessors? I’ll never understand the console business.

Ace J

they always do that during the launch of consoles.

darkcreap

Ouch…

Definitely, not a good marketing decission. I would not blame Nintendo on this. It is the retailer the one responsible.

I completely blame Nintendo for continuing a dead console in the face of a struggling new console.

darkcreap

Yep, agreed. They should have dropped the Wii not only in Japan.

Theiz Zzee

On the flip side hopefully that means those Wii U bundles sold out.

Jack5221

I don’t see the confusion at all. To the right of the picture, there are White Wii U bundles still left, and to the top left theres a pretty clear picture of the Wii U bundle with Mario and Luigi U. Plus that 99 sign CLEARLY says Wii mini in small text. It does NOT say Wii U. If someone thinks that Wii mini is the Wii U then they’re an idiot. Not trying to offend anyone, but seriously. The Wii mini does not include Mario / Luigi U and there are a bunch of Wii U Party bundles next to it, so what exactly is the confusion here?

jrob23

seriously, not worthy of an article at all

Nintenjoe82

At least it is on display. I guess that is where the 50,000 Wii sales came from last week 🙂

Glitch256

I had a guy at work get his son the Wii mini when the kid specifically ask for Wii U. I asked why didnt u get Wii U? He said, “ah its cheaper. Same crap anyways. Just put a U on it and jack it up 200 more bucks. Cant fool me.” He got fooled, his son got fooled, and nintendo fooled themselves. 🙁

Anthony Sibilla

One of the most ignorant people I’ve heard of when it comes to deciding what console to buy…

Glitch256

Yup. He could care less about games which is why hes totally ignorant. Its america in general. A lot of people need things spelled out for them. They dont want to think for themselves anymore. So the kid is gonna say I wanted a wii U and the parent is gonna reply l, “your ungrateful.” When in reality, they should invest more time into their kids intrests and they would learn that the wii u is a new and better console.

Guest

My father does not care about video games but even though he looked into how the wii u was diffrent, now he is enjoying it as well as the rest of the family.

Glitch256

Because he took a few minutes out of his day to make sure he got the right thing. He did good.

It’s not just an American issue. Many Europeans were just as confused. It’s got little to do with nation and more to do with the fact that most parents buying game consoles for their kids aren’t well-informed about the Wii U itself.

Glitch256

True dat. America is actually selling a whole lot more than Europe. Europe is pretty much ps4 territory now. Japan is catching on with the Wii U now which is good and im not worried about xbone there.

Poor guy… so used to being screwed by companies like Apple who do what he described that he ignores true innovation

Rinslowe

So true. Almost every one I know is Apple crazy. Admittedly they make a very stable OS. But I fail to see the continued innovation that the price tag commands. All the while people are asking me why did you stick with Nokia? They’re dead man! LOL And I’m happily enjoying Windows Phone 8 (I’m only critical of their latest console) and a 44MP camera which pops. Plus the Lumia 1020 is a sexy device…
Also using the HTC One X+ daily as well. And I’d even prefer that over the Iphone any day. My IPhone 5 has been out of the box only once…
Having said that my wife uses her 5 everyday and swears by it. As well as half of HK, lol. Go figure eh…

Shigeru Miyamoto

Apple makes crap phones… i don’t ever invest a lot of money for a cell phone. BUT…. I do have a MacBook pro and it’s great… pricey yeah but really great to me.
different strokes for different folks.
I also thought the iPad was just a fad when it came out… i thought wow.. who would buy one of those?… well I just got one for my wife and it’s pretty cool… but i’m still loving my macbook.

Rinslowe

Yep, I can also personally vouch for the Mac Pro. I still don’t like the I-pad most times. But I’ll use it when I have too…
Got the Ipad 3rd gen I think and an Ipad mini. I personally use the Surface Pro 2 myself as it syncs well with my daily gear.
But yeah, don’t actually get me wrong. I think Apple’s OS is great. And to the point. Their phones are a joke, but that’s just my opinion. Their netbooks are top notch as well as their desktops for general use, again IMO. And Ipads are so so…

It’s pretty reliable, but when they update almost semiannually, it’s just laughable

Also, a friend is offering to sell me their HTC One X for 40 bucks. Is that a steal? It looks pretty nice, but I’m not sure

Rinslowe

Yep it’s a steal, IMO – depending on the condition. The original HTC One X, I was using for about 8 months daily… So yeah can attest to it being a solid performer. Probably even today. The only gripe I had was battery life. If you’re a heavy user like me you’d need to charge twice a day. Otherwise it’ll get you through two thirds of the day on some lite surfing and emailing etc…
I guess at the end of the day it’ll depend on your current phone model and the possible fact that for $40 bucks, you’re not likely to get a decent entry into a quadcore phone for less.
🙂
Oh and also which memory model is it 16 gigs? If so still a good deal…
Also if you have the US version which I didn’t you should have LTE support as well…

Seriously though, for heavy Wifi use should be good for, a few solid hours. But if it’s constant… Different story.
Still, a nightly or afternoon charge will have you feeling pretty ok about it.
But – I won’t lie to you, battery life wasn’t the best…
Lastly though, as you can see mine is still pretty mint as well. I would have no issues using it if I was somehow needing to.
🙂

I’ll pretty much just leave it plugged in whenever Im home. Thanks again!

Rinslowe

Zorpix,

Any chance of an assist with a rather insistent group of serial trouble makers? It seems @Nintenscience and his group are stalking my every comment and flagging every second one. I don’t think it’s an overly big deal – the downvotes I don’t care about actually. But it does interrupt what should be a good experience in browsing and commenting on Wii U Daily, after being stalked serially and flagged constantly for eg. I guess this is what could be classed as harassment…
And how is excessive stalking/ trolling and flagging dealt with anyway?

Rinslowe

Hi there Zorpix,

Sorry to contact you on here, but the situation with this serial trolling from The Nintenscience group is beyond a joke. I know you’re now writing articles for Wii U Daily so was hoping you could pass this to the powers that be? Or otherwise I go straight to disqus as well for resolution.

This refers especially to;

@HyperTalllih &

@Nintenscience/ @TheScienceEnthusiast1130/ @TheScienceEnthusiast

These guys are literally stalking me everywhere on here and somehow following me to everywhere else. Not to mention that but it seems I am at the center recently of their coordinated harassment. Not sure if they can do what they are saying. But have been experiencing certain intermittent PC issues recently…

Thanks Zorpix. I would hope that in light of the situation Wii U Daily could in fact place a ban on these individuals. According to the wealth of evidence towards their harassment and to the extent in which they are willing to go in order to carry out that harassment. Honestly I won’t be satisfied with anything less than that because although I thoroughly enjoy posting here. It’s not worth the cost of my privacy, personal information or the hijacking of my PC as outlined in the screenshots provided. Which may in turn lead to identity theft/ credit card theft/ email theft etc.. etc..
Therefore if no action is to be taken. I will have only the option to browse elsewhere entirely for Nintendo related news. This of course is not preferred as the Science Enthusiast/ Nintenscience group has managed to follow and track me to various different sites regardless of all standard measures taken to prevent that from happening.http://wiiudaily.com/2014/01/nintendo-new-headquarters-construction/#comment-1189848503
Thanks Again.

Rinslowe

Hmm, some edits involved but I got my opinion review through to you lol… Ha!
Original HTC One X should be a good phone for that price. Had to go and have a look. I’ve kept every phone I owned since the original Iphone and update nearly every 6-12 months so …

Rinslowe

This could be you.
🙂

Alex

And what happen did you tell him that the WiiU is a next Gen, and man Nintendo is totally screw the name.

Glitch256

Yeah I told him it was hi def, next gen and backwards compatible. He said it was confusing and his kid didnt need all that. He seemed a little perturbed when I told him he cant play thee new mario. I wonder if he bought wii u games to go with it? I didnt ask. Lol

People are still confused on this, and it’s partly because nobody researches these things, partly because Nintendo hasn’t really defined the Wii U anywhere else but E3 and it’s youtube channel. They need better TV marketing.

Glitch256

Nintendo claims they use tv advertising on focused parenting channels. As a thirtysomething parent that works swing shifts, I have a lot of tine off during the day and my tv is always on nick jr., sprout and daytime tv stuff and I have yet to see a wii u commercial. I saw multiple commercials for 2ds. Nintendo is not trying hard at all.

Geekman

I didn’t really expect it to be on Nick Jr, sprout, or any educational channels. Nintendos not THAT childish. I’ve seen it’s commercials on Comedy Central, TBS, ABC, Nicklodeon (Younger sibling) Cartoon Network (Regular Show is awesome.) and several other channels. They’ve even sponsored movies like “Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows Part 2” and “Thor” tocome on, Neither of which I had seen before, so I’m grateful to Nintendo for that. They’re definitely trying, they just need an non-1987 approach.

Geekman

And besides, even a 2 year would realize that a 6 inch gamepad was missing.

peeer

LoL After that peoples wonder why the Wii U isn’t selling well in Europe…

Rafael Bernal Cantaluppi

now im starting to blame stupid people… Is not that hard to notice that huge U in the box/baner/game cases…

There’s nothing wrong in blaming the stupidity of Nintendo’s move in continuing the Wii console altogether. You’re too easy to say this because you and I follow gaming news closely, plus we’re Nintendo fans who still care about Nintendo products.

Not everyone who buys these products follows gaming news like we the more dedicated gamers do. Besides, “U” isn’t describing jack-sh*t about the console being a new generation of console. “Wii 2” would’ve done a far better job, or perhaps just leaving the “Wii” brand altogether.

You had even many core gamers confused about the Wii U at its introduction, but never bothered to learn more about it, simply because Nintendo yet again when the underpowered-console route, with few games and still behind in terms of a major presence of online gaming. Few not-particularly-Nintendo-fans among core gamers keep up with Nintendo news.

I know few who can actually name a major title coming to Wii U (besides the obvious names like SSB and Mario Kart)–not that there’s particularly a whole line of games announced yet.. So if you’re someone with little reason to follow Wii U news, why keep up with what doesn’t outright interest you when they’re other things that do?

If people don’t have a motivating reason to learn something, they won’t. We’re a generation distracted by options. If you want to interest more people in life, you have to meet them where they’re at.

There’s a reason why Sony numbers its consoles. And why Microsoft uses “360” and “one”. While gamers themselves know the new systems, many systems are bought by parents or significant others who don’t game, and have no idea what they’re looking at. I’m astonished to this day that the system was EVER allowed to be called the” Wii u”. I’m even more surprised that they didn’t make it look starkly different than the Wii. The Wii u is going to end up as an example in a lot of marketing classes of how not to launch a product…

That is so stupid putting those Red Wii’s in that box that advertise Wii U games of Mario. I bought a Wii U at Launch and was not confused with anything, people are so uneducated.

Shy Guy

Someday these Wii Minis will be mentioned by collectors in the same sentence as the NES-101 and the SNS-101, the fact they’re not selling well will only serve to make them that much rarer and thus sought after by collectors.

Well; one things for sure – this CANNOT be classified as confusion, but simply as incompetence and pure laziness.

Instead of just getting a different display case; they’re to lazy to simply swap out the container. Shame on them.

tronic307

The Wii mini is wack, son!

Patrick Starman

I question why Nintendo is selling a degraded version of a dead console in the first place.

CMB

This is one of the dumbest things nintendo has done, we knew it was going to cause some trouble to wii u.

Gabe Hoffman

I don’t see how this will hurt Wii U. Anyone with half a brain who looks at that display case should immediately be able to tell that that what is in the case is not what is really supposed to be there. Besides this could be a sign that nobody bought Wii Mini and went with Wii U instead

mario54671

You’re too generous to the stupid people. The RETAILERS have no idea what the difference between Wii U and Wii Mini are, people are gonna ask, and these uninformed idiots are going to explain it to them.

People don’t reason and think for themselves, they need some loser at the retail stores to tell them.

It hurts the Wii U because people will buy THIS over the Wii U. Wii sales are still rather high, and they’re cannibalizing on the Wii U sales. Nintendo just needs to kill the Wii off, and just have Wii U on the market. That way, people want a Nintendo console, they just go with Wii U.

Gabe Hoffman

Basically this retailer had an empty display box and was trying to find something to fill it. Its not stupid but rather lazy. Also it not very smart to kill off support entirely for your old console too soon to focus on the new one. That’s pretty much what doomed Sega

Rinslowe

There’s a sickness in the US gaming scene overall (namely the media, outlets and *MS) and it doesn’t like Nintendo. But that doesn’t mean the gamer’s have abandoned Nintendo. Hardly.
But on topic. Seeing as the Wii U is essentially a Wii/ Gamecube/ N64 and every other Ninty console since the dawn of Ninty conosles – with the exception of the V…… (Let us not speak that word).
This Wii mini, does seem more like a WTF… If you know what I mean.

Shigeru Miyamoto

Wow

Bob Singh

My cousins went out last week and bought a Wii Mini. Why not a Wii U? I tried explaining but people have no idea. 🙁

Nikko Ybanez

wtf why are wii minis in stores

Stephen Davis

You don’t get it, It was the smartest decsion Nintendo could have made. They finally are playing offensively. Its a trap! Parents buy the wii mini thinking its what Johnny wanted and wow such a great price too! But then they find that this doesn’t have online and so they take it back and get the WIIU. Its a consumer trap, they buy into the lower prices and then whats another 100 when they already spent a 100. Its smart. A little aggressive but smart. Why else would they give them a free Mario Kart game where the greatest piece is online play. Hmmm they call support and support says yes no online but our new WIIU has. I think you get my point. We should be thanking these people that box full of wii minis will come back and in place they will have new WIIU’s 🙂

Wiiluigi

I remember old display of boxes neatly stacked up in one big square. They couldn’t do this here? Instead they throw it in a wii u display container and confuse consumers. Nice job!

Mario

I do not understand why Nintendo even made Wii minis in the first place.

It’s pretty dead, the Wii sold a nice number of units so it’s kind of surprising that Nintendo are starting to milk it.
The money spent on making an inferior version of the Wii could have been better used to market the Wii U.

Even though there’s some slight customer/retailer confusion, the Wii U seems to be picking up in sales now, despite the launch of the PS4 and Xbox one. I hope to see the console continue the sudden pick up in sales, 2014 is the year for Wii U. So many games!

I saw them displayed at Media Market somewhere in between WiiU consoles, then Wii Mini’s and then Accesoires for Wii and WiiU, the mini’s had two small shelves in between.

mario54671

Yes, it IS happening around me. I just went to a Walmart and saw all the Wii Mini stickers and advertising OVER their Wii U glass panel. Then, an employee was explaining how the Wii Mini is the “cheaper Wii,” and made it sound like its as a great deal for $99.

Similarly, on two occasions, I went to a Best Buy and found how the employees didn’t have the slightest clue on what the difference is, and just made stuff up. The woman kept saying “Oh the Wii U is the Wii that comes with the controller,” while the other time, I was asking for a Wii U console, and the guy said, “Well, we have the Wi U Mini!”

Same old story. People have no idea what the difference is.

Geekman

I saw SOME logic in the Wii mini. The Wii was discontinued in many countries, so the Wii mini was an alternate choice for those who couldn’t afford a Wii U. Though I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to do this.

wii u is awsome

my name says wii u is awsome because thats what it gave me i dint pick it
any way the wii mini shouldnt of been made in the first place
no internet
no gamecube
for £100
theres a retailer called game over here and they do wii s for £50 and under

shanafan

Maybe they sold out of Wii U’s, and they are trying to sell their Wii inventory

companyoflosers

wii mini not only should have never been featured this holiday season, but it never should have been conceived at all. it only hurts the wii u’s chances at gaining recognition by those who dont frequent sites like this.

James060394

Sometimes i think we would be better at marketing than Nintendo.

Wii U daily should have a competition to see who can produce the best advert for Nintendo. That would be awesome.

Wii Mini. A needless variation of a discontinued product, designed to milk the formerly-popular Wii name to already-confused non-gaming consumers, despite dealing with a struggling new console of a very similar name and look to the original Wii.

As much as I love Nintendo, they just seemed to do everything wrong with handling the Wii U. I hate when people try to justify the Wii Mini, or Nintendo’s handling of Wii U–a true fan will admit where Nintendo is capable far better. Honesty is the best way to help what you love.